














;^ > ;:>>vi> 









'v.?;;^ ^:a 



-^. ^ r:» >'5.-'-s ■>:*» ■ 

> •">;os>»-i>3:::» 



» JO 2 



>3 :>> j>i* ^~T» 



' -> x> ;:»> >T> ■z> > ii> 
J i:> -s> >2> J 

■^<^ ^^ >:^ :*> .v> -;; 

- » o >^j 
>) 2> 

» i> _ 

> '^:> :> >:> ):>:^ :);'i> 









^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS J 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, f 



:> ~>-z 

' > 1^ 3 ^ ->,::» > -> . >. _3 ■ >> ■ > _^ :> >, -^ 

3> -> 3> > > »> "!"> ^ :^_>' » i» > > 

, > ^ ":> > '>:3»-' ^ > T> >■"> .3» ''2 

'-> >:> ; > >>v .-> •_> I> >'S> ">:■ r 

v> > T >».:.vij> ^■^>":::> >^r3» ^ 
>^ i>3 rjy ::> • •> ;:> -> >j>:) z> 









!'f ^-^ '^^^ ^5" 



► ■■5>:i> . 

J3» ^.^ 






>~zrz> y 72> -^ 



I> Z> ,)>;0 "^ 1>) ;^ -2> ^ ; 






> :> 

'"> z> 
> y 
yy "> 



> > 

:> ^ > 









3- >■!>:> 
» > 3 :> 






>>» ^> 



> ~3 -^ 

II 















-< TO J> 



30 J> . ' =r,-=7^ 



m> >> 






^:'^> 

>>:> ? 









^■>'j> 


















3 > 



:> >> -= 



5^ 

5^ 






00 "s> > > -- 

» £> ^> -> - = 
» ):> ^ > 

:> J) >^ 2> ■> _ 

> >3 ) O >> l> ^ 3> ^ 

>o3 ':>'>)'"> ^ 



ill! 






,-!> ^ ->.) z> o ^ 






^ >> > >> ?^ -§ ^?^? > ^ -^ > > > 



• ^ o ^ ?>>.^ ^•-,^^> 3 ^' :3 















^ '!>>:» I 



> ls^^ 



osi 



:2>> > 



3 i2> >^ 

>" 1> > -> > 

:? i> : 




-^^Q 



The Old "Ways"— or the Pilgrims and their Principles. 



DISCOURSE 



j \ 



ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS, 



DELIVEUKU IN 



BROADWAY CHURCH, CHELSEA, MASS., 



DECEMBER 21, 18.)6 



BY JOSEPH A. COriV 

Pastor of the Church. 



PI liLIsHED ]?Y IIKQUEST. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 
1857. 



.. f \^ 



(J 



b 



"The Old Ways"— or the Pilgrims and their Principles. 



DISCOURSE 



ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS, 



DELIVERED IN 



BROADWAY CHURCH, CHELSEA, MASS., 



DECEMBER 21, 1856 



BY JOSEPH A. COPP, 

Pastor of the Church. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 
1857. 



-Gis 



This Discourse, is aflfectionately dedicated by their Pastor, to the 
people of his charge, in the hope, that they and their children, 
may love and cherish for themselves, and transmit to posterity, 
the principles and virtues of their Pilgrim Fathers. 



DISCOURSE. 



JEREMIAH VI. IG, 

THUS SAITH THE LORD, STAND YE IN THE WAYS, AND SEE, AND ASK FOR 
THE OLD PATHS, WHERE IS THE GOOD WAY, AND WALK THEREIN, AND 
YE SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 

Thus the Prophet instructs his erring and dis- 
couraged countrymen, to look back on the better 
days of their history. He myites them to review 
the causes which, in a former period, had built 
them up to great prosperity ; and to consider, that 
a departure from these had led to the present hum- 
bled and distressed condition of the nation. 

As a lost man, beginning to feel the incon- 
venience of his situation, and the folly that had 
led him astray, seriously sets about to inquhe for 
and regain the lost path, so the Prophet admon- 
ishes wandering Judah to consider the moral causes 
which had led them into distress, and to commence 
retracing their steps to those principles from which 
they had departed, and apostasy from which, had 
occasioned all their misfortunes. Therefore they 
are exhorted to " stand in the ways," to pause and 



consider, to " ask for the old paths," " the good 
way," in which their fathers had walked, and in 
returning to which, they could only expect to 
" find rest for their souls." 

These words are not without an application to 
the people of this country and our day. We of 
New England, the children of the Pilgrims, may 
profitably look back on our history, and, ascending 
the stream of generations, contemplate those mem- 
orable days, when our Fathers planted their infant 
institutions on these Western shores. It will be 
profitable to review their times and labors, not 
only as deeply interesting history, but to determine 
the practical and more imj)ortant question, how far 
their principles survive, and are felt amongst us. 
What were the " old paths " and " good way " of 
the Fathers, and to what extent are they recog- 
nized and followed by their children 1 This is the 
simple object of inquiry at this time. And for 
such an inquiry, no time seems more fitting than 
to-day, the anniversary of the landing of the Pil- 
grims from the Mayflower. Since that event, two 
hundred and thirty-six years have passed away — 
a somewhat lengthened period, shedding the light 
of history and experience on the principle and 
issues of that ever memorable day. 

The settlement of New England was indeed a 
memorable event, in all its aspects. In contem- 
plating this subject, let us consider. First, the de- 
sign of the settlement by the Pilgrims ; Secondly, 
the principles on which it was made and con- 
ducted by them ; and Thirdly, the duty of reviving 
the influence and imitation of their virtues. 



I. What was the Design of the Pilgrim Set- 
tlement IN New England 1 

Of this event, the great and smgular design is 
clearly set forth in a declaration made by the Pil- 
grims, while they were yet in Holland, where 
they had found shelter from English persecutions. 
Among other and inferior causes assigned for leav- 
ing their retreat among the Dutch, they mention 
this as the leadmg and decisive one : — " An inward 
zeal and great hope, of laying some foundation, 
OR making avay for propagating the kingdom of 
Christ, to the remote ends of the earth." 

The object of our Fathers was thus a religious 
one. They sought a place, where they could enjoy 
unmolested the rights of conscience, and " make a 
way for propagating the kingdom of Christ," on 
the foundations of a well constructed Christian 
State. Such a design was peculiar to the Plym- 
outh Pilgrims, and solitary among the numerous 
colonizing enterprises of that day. There were 
colonies from Spain, France, England, Portugal 
and Holland, planted on the Islands and Conti- 
nents in every latitude ; but their general objects 
were commercial. Wherever new fields were pene- 
trated by the bold Navigator, they were at once 
occupied for barter and wealth. The Spaniard 
who sought gold in El Dorado of the South, but 
expressed, by this movement, the general cupidity. 
New lands were added, and new settlements made, 
but all, to satisfy the thirst for empire and for 
earthly riches. 

But in that day of enterprise and discovery, 
when the seas were swarming with greedy adven- 



turers, and the shores dotted with traduig stations, 
it was the glory and honor of one little company, 
of one little band of enterprising and fraternal 
spirits, to propose an object as smgular in that age 
of mercenary traffic, as it was grand in itself, to 
make a settlement for the glory of God, and the 
propagation of the principles of his kingdom. 
And never did adventurer, in pursuit of gold, with 
more zeal and ardor spread the flowing sail, than 
did the Pilgrims plunge into a wintry sea, to plant, 
on a distant and desolate coast, the institutions of 
religion and Christian society. 

But as the long line of the American coast 
stretched out before them, from the Bay of Fundy 
to Georgia, why did they not select a more genial 
clime? Here, again, the providence of God and 
the principles of the men decided the event. They 
had entertained, for a time, a thought of settling 
in the West Indies, or under the patent of Vir- 
ginia. They were also directed and encouraged by 
the book of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Bayard Taylor 
of that day, to look towards Guiana, which the 
w^arm genius and glowing pen of that statesman- 
adventurer, had painted in all the fascinating at- 
tractions of another paradise. But no charms of 
earthly scenery, or promise of luxury and wealth, 
had power over the Pilgrims to turn them from 
the mdications of duty, or silence the demands of 
principle and conscience in their breasts. They 
wanted liberty and protection to plant and build 
up their own institutions of church and society. 
The ministers of King James would not grant 
them these rights, within any existing patent.* 

* Prince, from Bradford, p. 50. 



They therefore turned away from the warm, fertile 
South, and with God and liberty on their standard, 
preferred to plant the seeds of a nation amid the 
frosts and snows of New England. The result has 
illustrated the stern wisdom of the Fathers. It has 
shown how an overruling Providence directed all 
theu- ways. Here they said, amid the solitudes of 
a depopulated coast, with none to dispute our 
clami, we may lay the foundations of our Christian 
enterjDrise " as stepping-stones to others." That 
memorable declaration, " as stepping-stones to 
OTHERS." Did ever, in our world before, a colony 
indicate such a spirit — such a noble, self-sacrificing 
purpose, for the good of future times 1 They were 
not in search of gold, or honor, or temporal em- 
pire. They had conceived a great idea ; they had 
struck upon the true view of social Christian de- 
velopment ; and they wanted a fair field, large and 
wade, to try the experiment, and Providence led 
them to the right spot for the work. A virgin 
soil, amid granite hills, was the fitting earthly 
foundation for planting institutions, which were 
destined to become as solid and enduring as those 
granite hills themselves. 

Leyden in Holland, was no place for the Pil- 
grims to build for the future. There they, indeed, 
enjoyed protection and repose. The Dutch were 
kind to our Fathers. Let us remember our lasting 
obligations to that people, for the generous and 
hospitable shelter which their fathers extended to 
ours in Holland. But that was no field for the 
great work these devoted men were called to exe- 
cute. Like Abraham, God said unto them, " Get 



8 

thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and 
from thy father's house, unto a land that I will 
show thee." Their old homestead was in England ; 
there were the graves of their fathers ; but England 
had become a cruel step-mother. The blood of 
her Pui'itan children were in her garments. They 
looked across the channel to their dear old native 
land — What Briton ever forgets his native isle ! — 
but it was the look of an exile, who knows no 
welcome. " We are well weaned," was the declar- 
ation of Robinson and Brewster, " from the del- 
icate milk of our mother country, and inured to the 
difficulties of a strange land ; the people are indus- 
trious and frugal. We are knit together as a body 
in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, of the vio- 
lation of which we make great conscience, and by 
virtue whereof we hold ourselves straitly tied to 
all care of each other's good, and of the whole. 
It is not with us as with men whom small things 
can discourage." * Then they turned their eyes to 
the West. Beyond a dark, stormy, almost unknown 
world of waters, rose in the dread distance, before 
their imaginations, the unexplored coast. But God 
threw the colors of hope over the wilderness before 
them, and they said, " The sun shines as pleasantly 
on America as on England, and the Sun of Right- 
eousness much more clearly." " Let us remove 
whither the providence of God calls, and make 
that our country, which will afford what is dearer 
than property or life, the liberty of worshiping 
God in the way which appears to us most condu- 
cive to our eternal well being." 

* Bancroft, Vol. I. p. 304. 



9 

Pain and trial are the price of all great and good 
things in this world. If we will look into the 
history of our world, the moral history of man, 
and follow the progress of events, we will under- 
stand, because we shall see what is here meant. 
There is no principle that has fuller illustration or 
more striking correspondences. Suffering is the 
antecedent of great virtue and usefulness. It may 
not be so in other spheres ; it is not so in a better 
world. But so it is in this sinful world ; and be- 
cause it is sinful, is probably the true reason. It 
was from the agony of Egyptian bondage, and long 
discipline in the wilderness, that the Hebrews were 
prepared to plant their typical institutions in 
Canaan. It was by the process of seventy years' 
suffering, that idolatry was eliminated from that 
nation. Our Saviour inaugurated the dispensation 
of Christianity in suffering and blood. He said 
to his disciples, in a last interview, " Thus it is 
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and 
to rise from the dead the third day." An apostle 
said afterwards, He " was made perfect through 
suffering," And so when the infant church went 
forth from Jerusalem to its mission in the world, 
it went out under a baptism of suffering. AVhen 
religion re-appeared from the night of the middle 
ages, it was born amid persecutions and bitterness. 
This law seems to hold in respect to all those great 
events, on which turn the destiny and prospects of 
men. Some minds Avould reason differently, but 
they reason without historical precedents, and with- 
out either a scriptural or philosophical view, of 
the present moral nature of man, and the methods 
2 



10 

by which he attains higher excellence. As man is 
born into the world with weeping, so every great 
moral development to which he is conducted as an 
individual, or in community, is preceded and sanc- 
tified with suffering. The night comes before the 
morning, agitation before repose, trial before peace 
and joy. When the individual is born again to the 
true light of the gospel, this too is a birth out of 
sin, through a repentance of anguish. Hence the 
universal apj)lication of that ScrijDture to all good 
men, " The fellowship of his sufferings." What 
renewed and eminently holy heart., has not such a 
fellowship with Christ "? The Pilgrims had such a 
fellowship. They had it in English courts and 
prisons, before they were driven across the channel 
into exile, and across the ocean to the new world ; 
and here, after they landed on Plymouth rock, the 
ordeal was not ended ; in five months they made 
New England soil precious, by intrusting to its 
faithful keeping, the sainted dust of about one 
half their whole number. And did they repine 
and despond at their hard lot, and give up the 
difficult enterprise 1 It is wonderful in reading 
the journals of that day, to see what little mention 
they make of their trials. Those stern Calvinists — 
you suppose them cold, without sympathy and 
feeling — enamored of theories and principles aus- 
tere and dogmatic, you think they were destitute of 
gentler emotions. No conclusion could be farther 
from the truth. Their kindness for each other, 
their sympathy in each other's sufferings, their 
self-sacrificing devotion, out-gushing tenderness, it 
would be difficult to parallel in the records of the 



/ 



11 

human heart. They watched with the sick and 
dying, they comforted and soothed bereavement 
and anguish with unwearying patience. They 
wept with the stricken mourner, and over the 
honored dead, as though they were born only to 
the office of tenderness, and emotions of sympathy. 
But they did not murmur, they did not talk of 
theu' trials, they made no long laments, they never 
seemed to lose confidence in their object. They 
w^ere willing to sow in tears, that others might 
reap in joy. Patiently and fearlessly did they 
illustrate those great words, to be " as stepping- 
stones to others." 

It required the agony of such a birth to give to 
the world the mighty results that have followed. 
One great mind to an age, it has been said, is all 
nature can afford ; but of such men as the Pilgrims, 
Providence gives them to the world by an allotment 
still more parsimonious and rare. 

How foolish and vain is man ; how blind and\ 
short-sighted. The Puritans were despised and per- 
secuted, and driven out of England. The church cut 
them off, the government worried them, the gentry 
laughed at them, Butler lampooned them. But it 
was the process of a wise Providence, shelling out 
the pure grain, and planting it deep in the right soil. 
Kings, ecclesiastics and courtiers were but the 
instruments to a husbandry, such as they dreamed 
not of. Caiiyle has said, with his characteristic 
point, " Puritanism was only despicable and laugh- 
able then, but nobody can manage to laugh at it 
now ; it is one of the strongest things under the 
sun at present." The Pilgrims stole away from the 



12 

mother' country, followed by the curses and deris- 
ion of the rulers and the rabble. But they went 
out in weakness, to return in power — they went 
out despised and a little one, to be welcomed by- 
and-by with triumph. The little Mayflower steals 
away from the English coast, as though she were a 
smuggler or a pirate. But the times are changed, 
the contemptible is now exalted, and the laughed 
at cannot be honored too highly. Could proud 
Elizabeth have believed, could it have been made 
to enter the head of intolerant James, and gay, 
licentious Charles, that the day was coming in the 
history of Great Britain — the day of her greatest 
power and glory — when this same humble scene of 
the sailing of the Mayflower, should be emblazoned 
by order of the government, on one of the panels of 
the house of Lords. Have patience, says the sage, 
' God is with the right, and truth will prevail.' 
/" The Pilgrims were brought to these shores, to 
' lay the foundation of principles. Christian and 
social, superior to and in marked distinction from 
those of all other settlements on the coast, and 
therefore the coast was kept open for the advent. 
Many attempts were made to build up establish- 
ments here, but without success. New England 
coast was a sacred, reserved dominion. Providence 
kept all others away. ' Their designs (says Cotton 
Mather) being aimed no higher than the advance- 
ment of some worldly interests, a constant series 
of disasters has confounded them.' The land 
which had been cleared of its savage inhabitants 
four years before by a desolating pestilence, which 
left not a claimant behind, was also forbidden to 



13 

the emplo)Tnents of mere trade and worldly traffic. 
It was kept in store, for an infant church which 
God was preparing for the important field. Plan- 
tations for trade, for peltry, tohacco and gold, were 
common enough along the American coast, but a 
plantation on purely Christian principles, and with 
Christian designs, this was the first. And so soon 
as it was planted, this object became immediately 
known, and was so accepted by all the settlers on 
the coast. In common estimation, the singular 
honor of being the house of God in the wilderness, 
was awarded to it. That this was the general esti- 
mation then and long after in which it was held, may 
be shown by an anecdote related by Cotton Mather. 
He says that a minister from the Bay, visited a 
trading and fishing settlement somewhere doAvn 
East, and preaching there to the people, " he 
besought them to approve themselves as religious, 
for if they did not, he said, they would contradict 
the main end of planting this wilderness ; where- 
upon one in the assembly cried out, ' Sir, you are 
mistaken ; you think you are preaching to the 
people of the Bay ; but our main end was to catch 
fish.' " Precisely so. The main end of the other 
colonies and settlements in the Xew World, was 
property and wealth, ' the loaves and fishes.' This 
one established by the Pilgrims, was the first one, 
the only one, established as a religious and moral 
enterprise. They did not certainly forget their 
own interests as Christians and men, in seeking the 
New World. They wanted an asylum — security of 
rights, religious and civil — where they could wor- 
ship God unmolested, and where they could sow 



14 

and plant, and gather undisturbed, the fruits of 
their labor. They did not forget their own imme- 
diate welfare, but they were careful that their own 
interest should harmonize with, and be subordinate 
to, the grander object of promoting the kingdom of 
Christ in the world. Such, then, was the great 
object of the Pilgrims. Let us now consider, 

II. The Principles of these people. 

1. The first great principle which characterized 
the Pilgrim Colony, was the supreme authority of 
the Scriptures. Their first institution was the 
Bible. They contended, that this alone contained 
their religion, and was the only supreme guide in 
matters of faith and practice. In England, this 
was the basis of their difficulty with the govern- 
ment, and the established church. They did not 
object to the doctrine of the thirty-nine articles of 
the church, indeed they embraced that doctrine. 
But they avowed the supremacy of the Scriptures, 
and the inviolable rights of conscience and wor- 
ship under them. Here, they contended, was a 
power, higher than kings, bishops or church, in 
its legitimate sphere a supreme authority, and to 
interfere with it, was treason agamst the God of 
heaven. This was the gist of the controversy 
between the Puritans on the one side, and the Gov- 
ernment and the Church on the other, for more 
than a hundred years before New England was 
colonized. * They were loyal subjects to the 
crown. England had no better subjects in all that 
regarded her constitution and honor. The only 

* Prince's Chron. p. 9L 



15 

eronnd of disagreement was the demand for a free 
Bible, and of free conscience and free worship 
under it. To enjoy this privilege, and raise up a 
community where this should be the common 
enjoyment, they planted these shores. The Bible, 
therefore, was their first institution. It was the 
only binding authority in the church, and the high- 
est in the state. They received it as profitable to 
all things, having the promise of this life and that 
which is to come. To this princijjle they steadily 
adhered, for in 1G41, twenty-one years after their 
settlement, the Plymouth Colony passed an ordi- 
nance that " no injunction shall be put on any 
church, or church member, as to doctrine, worship, 
or discipline, whether for substance or circum- 
stance, beside the command of the Bible." 

2. The doctrinal priuciples of the Pilgrims. 
These were such, as constitute the evangelical sys- 
tem. They adopted a plain, simple, straight-forward 
understanding of the Bible, in all its doctrines and 
requirements. Nothing was received into special 
ftivor because soft and agreeable, and nothing left 
out because harsh and trying. They received the 
whole word as God's, and believed the divine wis- 
dom would put nothing in it which was not useful. 
It was this close adherence to the Bible doctrines, 
and conformity of their lives to them, that gave so 
much offence. " These Puritans (said King James 
in the star-chamber) must not be countenanced." 
It was not because they had the Bible, for that 
had been given to the whole kingdom, but because 
they would follow its teachings so exactly, that 

* Thacher's Eccl. Hist. Plym. pt. iii. p. 267. 



16 

they became a standing reproof to his majesty's 
good subjects, and thus were obnoxious to the cen- 
sure of the times. And why have the Bible at all, 
they thought, if not to believe and follow all its 
teachings ? Enlightened by the Spirit of God, 
they discovered a heavenly meaning in every doc- 
trme, and found spiritual food in every part of the 
holy volume. They discovered, as they believed, 
the doctrines of Luther, Calvin, and Knox, in the 
Scriptures, and as honest, Chiistian men, they must 
avow and follow them. With the doctrine of the 
Church of England, as contained in the Articles, 
they had no controversy. Had this been all, they 
could have lived and died contentedly m her com- 
munion. But there were rites and observances 
enforced, which they could not endure. There 
were demands on their consciences which they 
could not meet, without sacrificing honesty and 
duty, and therefore they went out. But though 
they abjured her hierarchy, her mtolerant spirit, 
her politico-religious constitution, they still cher- 
ished the doctrmes of her Articles, as containing 
the great system of evangelical truth. The doc- 
trinal principles of the Pilgrims were what are 
now termed Orthodox. They followed the Gene- 
van school, and were firmly grounded in the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, the depravity of human na- 
ture, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the 
regeneration of the soul by the Spirit of God, a 
life of holiness, and eternal rewards and punish- 
ments in the future state, according to character 
here. In some respects, their customs and opinions 
may have been carried too far. But it should be 



17 

remembered, that they came out of a church where 
the most offensive laxity was the rule — where Sun- 
day was made a holiday, and a system of sports 
for its desecration was required by law to be read 
from the pulpit, and where public morals had sunk 
to the last degree of degeneracy. No wonder our 
Christian fathers revolted with horror from such 
shocking dissoluteness, and set up a high standard 
of their own. The Sabbath was to be sacredly 
kept, profaneness, lewdness and frivolity were dis- 
countenanced, gaming was forbidden, and a strict 
moral deportment was enjoined. 

Their standard was high — in some aspects, sternly 
so ; but it is better to be too high than too low. 
The tendency in human society is ever to lower the 
standard, both in doctrine and practice. Thou- 
sands of years ago, heathen sages felt and exclaimed 
over the follies of men and the universal tendency 
to degeneration. The world is indebted to Ortho- 
doxy, or the evangelical system of the gospel, for 
resisting this tendency. Woe to mankind when 
this standard shall fall. It is the great conservative 
principle of life and health to Christendom. Per- 
haps, at times, it may be regarded as stern and 
uncompromising, but still it is the bulwark of our 
virtues and the citadel of public morals. And 
should the day ever come, Avhen pure old Ortho- 
doxy shall strike her standard to a soft and lux- 
urious age, then shall we have the beginning of 
the end of social disorganization. The world will 
have reached those last times of the x\postle, (2 
Tim. iii.,) m which wickedness, losing all respect 
3 



18 

for decency or religion, will abound and triumph 
in the earth. 

It was the conservative influence of the Puritans, 
that saved England from the degeneracy to which 
she was fast sinking in the seventeenth century, 
and revived the dying embers of her expiring reli- 
gion. And Puritanism came here, and planted her 
standard on these shores of New England, and here 
difl"used her doctrines and her spirit abroad ; and 
but for this, the people of these States to-day would 
have been no better than the children of the Cath- 
olic Spaniard of Mexico or South America. As 
far as the Puritan doctrine and spirit have gone, 
we discern the happy eflects on society. Where a 
lower standard and softer elements have prevailed, 
we find a corresponding degeneracy. The highest 
style of character, both intellectual and moral, includ- 
ing the moral graces and civil virtues, comes from 
the mould of old Puritanism. And yet some make 
merry over the olden ways, and laugh at the no- 
tions of the Puritan Fathers ; but it is scarcely a 
compliment, to one's judgment or taste, to laugh at 
what history shows, as Carlyle says, " is one of the 
strongest things under the sun." 

But once more, the Pilgrim Fathers laid the 
foundations of the state on the joint principles of 
religion, liberty, and labor. Free religion, civil 
liberty, and honorable labor. Smarting from under 
the rod of civil and ecclesiastical oppression, they 
came here to found a just and Christian govern- 
ment. They were the descendants and associates 
of a class who had long been the true conservators 



19 

of constitutional liberty. Their detennined inter- 
ference had saved it more than once from the 
usurpations of the Stuarts. The historian Hume, 
who hated the Puritans, is yet compelled to do 
them this justice. He says " the precious spark of 
liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the 
Puritans ; and it was to this sect, whose principles 
and habits appear so ridicidous, the English owe 
the whole freedom of their constitution." 

AVitli this love of liberty, they began the found- 
ing of institutions in New England. To this lib- 
erty, they united as its natural auxiliary and true 
ally, free, honorable labor. You may say they were 
laborers from necessity ; they were also laborers 
from principle. They considered labor honorable 
as an example, profitable as a duty, and useful as a 
discipline. It was with them, that it rose to the 
dignity of an institution ; and they went back for 
that, as they did for everything else, to the inspired 
authority, where it was written, " If any will not 
work, neither shall he eat." And thus free, hon- 
orable labor, entered into their idea of what con- 
stitutes a true state organization. Society thus 
took form under their hands, thus it grew up and 
spread out. And even in this day, the good old 
leaven works ; there is not a country in the world, 
where liberty is so dear, and labor so honorable, as 
here in New England. True piety and wisdom 
will ever guard the reputation of labor, and among 
the great elements of society will deem it no less 
necessary than noble. It belongs, says an eminent 
statesman, to the " great, substantial interest on 
which we all stand. Not feudal service, nor pre- 
dial toil of one race of mankind subjected to the 



20 

control of another ; but labor, intelligent, manly, 
independent, thinking and acting for itself, earn- 
ing its own wages, and accumulating its own 
capital, educating childhood, maintaining worship, 
and helping to uphold the great fabric of the 
state. That is American labor." Yes, and let us 
add, to our Pilgrim Fathers belong the honor of 
having laid, in our social system, this great and 
noble principle. Religiously did they lay down 
this principle, and religiously did they obey it, for 
Bradford and Brewster, the Governor and Minister, 
labored side by side, in the field together. 

Such were the principles of the Pilgrims. Their 
principles have made us what we are, and our 
country what it is. These are the principles of a 
true humanity, and of a sound and well adjusted 
state organization, and which find their high au- 
thority in that inspired religion which recognizes 
our duty to God and each other. 

But the review which has been taken to-day — 
too rapid and imperfect we know — of the work of 
our honored Fathers, should not be merely for bar- 
ren admiration, or the aimless purpose of recalling 
the events of an extraordinary people and time. 
Rather should we read their history, to cherish and 
practice their principles ; therefore, 

III. It is the Duty of the Children of the 
Pilgrims, to revive the influence and imitation 
OF their Ancestral Virtues. 

The memories we recall to-day, were of men who 
acknowledged no obligations in theory, which they 
did not meet in practice. The principles for which 
they contended and suffered, of their religious and 



21 

social creed, they illustrated in their lives. Before 
God and man, they endeavored to maintain a con- 
science void of offence. They had a Sabbath, and 
it was sacredly observed. The Holy Scriptures, 
we have seen, was their first institution, revered as 
the palladium of their liberties and rights, and its 
precepts faithfully obeyed. They sought the de- 
velopment of a pure " church and state," and op- 
posed their whole moral force against immorality, 
profaneness, and sins and vices of every kind. 
They planted the house of God in their midst, and 
its stated worship was honored by the observance 
of all the people. In a word, their whole system of 
Christian, moral and social life, was sustained on 
principle ; and its obligations, as they understood 
them, faithfully discharged. Such was the spirit 
and high position of our ancestors. 

But it will be said, if they had virtues, history 
has also recorded their faults. All that our Fathers 
did, we do not approve. They were men, and in 
some things erred. Men educated in an age of 
intolerance and darkness, when human rights were 
imperfectly understood, should not be expected to 
have escaped every error of their times.* If their 
action in some things want our approval, of their 
great principles we cannot speak in too high praise ; 
and of the men themselves, they were of a noble 
and magnanimous type. Take them altogether, 
and perhaps the world had never before seen such 
a company. . In the long history of colonization, 
such another group as made its advent on Plymouth 
Rock, from the deck of the Mayflower, cannot be 
shown. 

* See Felt's Eccle. Hist. p. 661. 



22 

Though more than two centuries have passed 
away, still the Pilgrims live in their works. They 
stamped their image on a nation, and successive 
generations of its children rise up and call them 
blessed. It is the prestige of such an ancestry, 
that New England is what she is to-day. And this 
old Commonwealth will cease to deserve the admi- 
ration which she now receives from an enlightened 
world, when her people shall cease to revere the 
memories and imitate the vu-tues of the Fathers. 

It is a profitable exercise, and inspires the senti- 
ment of a virtuous self-respect, to look back on our 
honorable past. In these vacillating and unset- 
tled days, when every man has his parable, and 
novelties come in upon us like a flood, it is well to 
" stand in the ways, and ask for the old paths." 
Let us go and refresh our memories at the sepul- 
chres of our Fathers, and invigorate our languid 
spirits by the study of their simple, earnest souls. 
We need their virtue to re-inspire us, to infuse 
new life into our institutions, to reform our times, 
and new direct our aims. Let us look back and 
inquire for that " good way, and walk therein, and 
we shall find rest for our souls." 

Alas ! the vitality of the olden time is sadly im- 
paired, and the pure principles of the Fathers have 
lost somewhat of their ancient lustre, in these days 
of invention and change. The progress of time 
has indeed brought along its important improve- 
ments ; but then, progress must not be permitted 
to unsettle those foundations of truth, religion, and 
social order, which are established by inspiration 
of God, and settled by long experience. If we 



23 

would look forward to the future with hope, we 
must ground ourselves firmly on the settled princi- 
ples of the past. The time will never come, when 
the sound. Christian piety of Robinson and Brew- 
ster, and the enlightened wisdom and prudence of 
Carver, may not still be consulted as lights in the 
Church and in the State. In the moral percep- 
tions, the vu'tuous stability, noble disinterested- 
ness, and simple piety of our Fathers, we find the 
elements of true prosperity, both social and civil. 
It is due to ourselves and the interests of our coun- 
try, that we ever keep in view this excellent model. 

But, dear brethren, can we better show our grat- 
itude for our origin, or more rationally display our 
admkation for our Fathers, than by a wise refer- 
ence to their principles, in the education of our 
children 1 Would we transmit our institutions to 
posterity? Shall our Protestant Religion, liberty 
of conscience, social order, and civil freedom, be 
handed down to bless the future 1 Shall those 
lights, spiritual and moral, Avhich Providence hung 
out in our heavens two centuries ago, and which, 
from a feeble beginning, have become at length the 
" great lights " of the world, still shed their health- 
ful beams on the nations, and still continue to 
carry truth and peace to mankind ] Then must we 
maintain, in the nurture of infancy and the educa- 
tion of youth, those principles, to which history 
and experience, amongst us, have given their im- 
primatur. 

Let not the inventions of a softer age and more 
fanciful training supersede that well-tried mould, 
out of which came the heroes who ventured all in 



24 

the struggle and achievement of American Inde- 
pendence and Society — the Fathers and Mothers of 
blessed memory. The old Family Bible, and the 
Assembly's Catechism, were the simple and effi- 
cient manuals in the training of generations, we 
shall ever remember with pride. In that venerable 
literature, of which these were the lights, the ele- 
ments of strength, virtue and intelligence were 
embodied, which moulded a noble race. 

That education which sent its martyrs to the bat- 
tle-fields of liberty, its statesmen to plead the cause 
of man before kings and senates, and its ministers 
to teach the reforms of civilization and administer 
the consolations of the gospel to the heathen, 
was a Puritan education. The standard which the 
profound Howe, the learned Owen, the mild and 
graceful Flavel, and the devout Baxter, illustrated 
in England, was the acknowledged standard of our 
ancestors. And to this Puritan, Orthodox liter- 
ature, says the historian Bancroft, the world does 
not know how deeply it is indebted ! 

These thmgs, dear brethren, we beg you not to 
forget. The errors of the past we would not ,re- 
vive ; but God forbid, that with some errors and 
imperfections, we should consign to neglect great 
principles of truth. Let education, at least in the 
family and the church, return to the old standard, 
and be refreshed and invigorated by a larger infu- 
sion of the pure doctrine of the olden time, and let 
our children be taught to appreciate the principles 
and imitate the virtues of the Fathers. , 






<^-c^^<StX 





















<T^^^'«:aC5^ 









"C4i4iCS, 



-^ <'C <r. 



c <<i <g^ 

<< <.<2 CCf 



:<cccc «C 



c'cc«:<; 












crrc 



. <k:c c ^^ 

• •>«■' «r ■ 









<1 d'^ 









■ c/< 






d . <: d . <OCc . C C 

. c - •C-'-cT *- <r<rj <r <r ■ 



C < <- 


cc <. <: 




c c < 




: 


csi^ ■_*- '^k^_ 


c <: <r 


«: •< r'«; 


c c:<: 


(Si ^<r<: 


<- c<r 


. <dc:«c: 




c<i: «ri 


c <<: 


■ <£■"■■- cr«; 


;: < C" 


^d <::<«r 



<^ c 


c 


<1 «^ 


iC 


^ — 




;: ^> ;c^ 


c • — 


c c C 


r^ <c. 


<<c 


:< <r: 


c^c 


: <- d. 


<:«(C 


<c< <Z 


c C 


cc <: 


" cc 


CS:<. 


' c c 


C c « 


p' ' 


<r< < 


^^'; 


c:< < 


d -^ 


> , ^ 


' — <: C 






<::< c 









*C V 






<:« <c ''^ 



c d c c 



^j- ,,r<«;c C.. < 















" c c 

•c c 
C C 

" c < 



^\ €Z1 <( d 



5''^ ;^ <cc<CC c 



<:2 <^ cs» 



<1 Q-C 

d c* c 

r c:<c 

r <x:< 



<3CCCC_C<rC ^3^ 

l'<c c<f <Z:. <:-c..c:: ^=/ - : 

I.r c' 07.« <r ■<r' "<r < < 

■<Z<c a- dT <*5 <;<^- ' ■^-" 
«r- , , *-' ■<« <<; <r 



c <_« c •o <"-. <^ ^ 

c • <:u cr<r <« <f d" ' 
re <r< <■• d" '/• .cs„.<r.. 

; < C:^ c CZ '<-" «5^ <: 



d:-.c d 
.<r. c <:r 









<3:? <Z 

<«:d7 



d5ti <r. 






< C C 

< c c 

c <r <Z. 

re ..<:■ 



•^ f< c*- ««' etc ' ^i 



<:c <■< 

die c< 

<- re 
d< <«r 



c cT <rd 
c < S^ 

r <c . ^ ^ 

r c <X d 
re <jL<^ 
< c . <:< d. 

d^i ^ 

' ' d<: dl: 



-^ S%. ■ « cxl:*^ 
= ' ^ ^-^ ^^cc<- 

^- ■ c^'<< « 
: ' ^ CC c<: «: 

-, <x: ; <« < 

^ .^ <rd<ii 

dc CC ^d«r<r. 

<:< c. «^*^'J^' 

<ret c<< <<c: 

CC d 

•C'C •■• < 

c c -^ <^<^ ■' 



<S: t d 



c c < <" - <« 
c < c 



